


The Place Inbetween

by wolfenmond



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Angel!Rin, Angels are Dicks, Demon!Ryuuji, M/M, Minor Injuries, Pre-Relationship, souls are dangerous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-30 23:44:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20105599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfenmond/pseuds/wolfenmond
Summary: The dark hair with a blond streak running through the middle, the pierced ears, the black clothes, the aura, those eyes – everything about the stranger screamed danger.His first time in Purgatory and Rin had already crossed paths with a demon.Rin gets assigned to collect the good souls in Purgatory but nobody has taught him how to defend himself against the bad ones. Or what to do when you meet a demon.





	The Place Inbetween

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in November 2013 for a different fandom but never posted it. I changed a few things to better fit the AnE characters and added a few details, other than that it's my writing from six years ago. Enjoy.

Purgatory. The place between heaven and hell where the souls waited for their final sentence, be it redemption or damnation.

In the old tales it had been described as a place very much like hell, with blazing fires and filled with the stench of burning flesh and the screams of the damned.

When he had received his new assignment to collect souls in Purgatory Rin had been a little bit afraid. All he had ever known was the peaceful sanctuary of heaven in which even the little glimpses he caught of the human realm seemed surreal and out of place.

He swallowed the lump in his throat and tried to shove aside his nervousness when Samael came to pick him up. The arch angel was responsible for the angels' side of purgatory business and rumour had it that he himself decided who would work under his instructions.

Why he would have chosen Rin was beyond the young angel's comprehension. Every angel had to go through a variety of tests of skills and knowledge before being assigned their future position and Rin hadn't shown any remarkable results in any of the fields. Yet here he was, following the tall angel deep inside a palace only those with special rank had access to.

Samael stopped in front of the portal that would take them to a place any sane person would fear. He motioned for Rin to step closer and with a firm grip on the young angel's shoulder he guided him through the portal. When they reached Purgatory, Rin blinked in confusion.

No fire. No screams.

It almost seemed like a place down on Earth, only the colours were subdued, more different shades of grey than anything, and the shadows seemed deeper than they should be.

“All you need to do is collect the souls that belong to heaven,” Samael instructed, “Just touch their forehead and recite the spell I gave you with the assignment letter.”

“But... How will I recognize those souls?” Rin asked, unsure if he was even capable of the task. Collecting souls was a responsible job and he was not sure if he wouldn't mess it up.

Samael smiled at him, lips stretching a little too wide and revealing fangs that shouldn't be there. It was a smile fitting for a demon. “You have a gift only a few possess,” he explained and laid his hand on his chest, “you will know the heart of the souls when you see them.”

“I... will?” Rin felt even more nervous now, Samael's words putting more pressure on him instead of relieving it. He had a gift? A rare one on top of that? He was certain that the arch angel was mistaken and that Rin would mess up big time.

But Samael seemed to trust his abilities more than Rin ever trusted himself, giving him another diabolical smile before he vanished with a theatrical bow and left Rin alone in the twilight woods that were Purgatory.

Finding a soul was the premise to being able to judge its 'heart' as Samael had called it so Rin wandered off aimlessly to look for someone awaiting judgement.

Walking around an uneasy feeling started to arise in Rin because from time to time there was movement in the already too deep shadows, and every now and then faint screaming reached his ears. Comparing purgatory to hell maybe wasn't so wrong after all.

Suddenly a soul emerged from behind a tree to his left and Rin took a step back, startled. The old man turned to look at him and smiled a wide toothless smile.

This one was a good soul, Rin knew instantly, although he had no idea why. Maybe that was what Mephisto had meant with a gift, when he had said Rin would know the heart of the souls. Right now he just knew.

Rin smiled back at the old man and took a few steps closer until he could reach his forehead with his outstretched hand. He barely touched him with his fingertips though and murmured the incantation that would bring his soul to eternal peace.

Slowly the soul started to glow until it resolved into a small ball of light in the palm of Rin's hand. With the last words Rin gave it a gentle push and it rose upwards beyond the crowns of the trees to find its place in heaven.

Rin found two more souls he could redeem before he came across the first soul he instinctively knew was bad. When the soul spotted him it came towards him and Rin found himself at a loss of what to do when the woman started a litany of how religious and good she had always been, and that surely he _must_ take her to heaven.

“Heaven is not your place,” Rin tried to explain which only made the woman furious. Her features twisted into something ugly and decidedly non-human, and with a scream she came at him. Rin barely managed to dodge her claws and jumped backwards to escape her next attack. Before he could even think about a strategy to get away from this soul a blast hit the woman and catapulted her several meters into the woods.

A figure appeared from Rin's right, a young man giving Rin nothing but a short glance before walking up to the soul. The woman had just managed to stand up when the stranger touched her forehead and recited an incantation – a different one, Rin noticed – that turned her into a ball of light, just like Rin had done with the good souls. To his surprise the bad-woman-turned-lightball rose to the grey skies as well.

The young man turned to Rin and the angel had to swallow hard when he was met with the most intense stare he had ever felt. Brown eyes beneath brows drawn to a frown bore into his own and for a moment Rin felt as if his own soul lay bare. The dark hair with a blond streak running through the middle, the pierced ears, the black clothes, the aura, those _eyes_ – everything about the stranger screamed danger.

His first time in Purgatory and Rin had already crossed paths with a demon.

“You're a new one,” the demon remarked with a smirk.

Rin simply nodded, unsure if he should stay or run as fast as he could. He didn't know if he could outrun the demon though. He knew the stories. Demons were fast and sharp witted; no matter where he would go, chances were high the demon could predict his movements and wait for him in what he had deemed safety. So he stayed.

The demon strode over casually. “They didn't teach you how to defend yourself? What a nice bunch your angel pack is. Say, did you do something _bad_ for them to send you here to be ripped apart?”

Ripped apart? Could souls really rip an angel to pieces? Rin had never heard any stories about that happening, but something about the glint in the demon's eyes convinced Rin that he spoke the truth on that matter. 

“I-I was assigned to collect the good souls that are worthy of heaven.” He tried to put as much confidence in his voice as he could muster, which wasn't that much judging by the demon's grin. Or maybe that guy was just grinning because he was going to attack Rin? He didn't know for sure if souls could rip angels apart, but demons definitely could. Rin regretted not running.

The demon studied his face, clearly amused. “Well,” he said at last, “I guess that makes us colleagues. Sort of at least.” Rin's confusion must have been evident, because the demon pointed to where he had transformed the woman's soul into a ball of light. “I'm a collector, too. It's just that I work for the other side.”

That explained the same process with a different incantation and Rin wondered why he hadn't drawn the obvious conclusion himself. There was just one thing that didn't quite fit. “But the soul rose to heaven, didn't it?”

The demon blinked at him in surprise. “Don't you know _anything_ about this place?” He let out an exasperated sigh. “Purgatory is the place inbetween. But not in the sense that heaven is upstairs and hell downstairs. It lies between the human realm and the realm of the souls. The human realm is beneath whereas both heaven and hell are above.”

That... made a lot of sense. All the angels ever told about Purgatory was that it was the place where souls awaited judgement and that it was inbetween. They never mentioned inbetween what.

“I didn't know,” Rin admitted.

The demon shook his head. “I really don't understand angels. If they didn't tell you something as simple as that I doubt they told you anything. It's a miracle they at least taught you how to collect souls.” His expression turned serious. “You should learn fast. Purgatory is a dangerous place.”

Suddenly his head snapped up and he seemed to be listening intensely. “I have to go,” he said, sounding almost apologetic and from one moment to the next he was gone.

Rin had no clue why he believed in what the demon said but that he had never been taught how to defend himself when faced with a hostile soul was a fact. That he had never been told where exactly Purgatory was was a fact. He had received his letter of assignment and not even a day later Samael had immediately brought him here and then left.

He was beginning to wonder why. Why the hurry? Why had he only gotten instructions to release a good soul but not how to ward of a bad one? Why did the angels let him go almost completely unprepared? Since he wouldn't find any answers if he just stood here he could at least do his job. Rin sighed and picked a random direction to begin his search for good souls anew. 

After his encounter with the demon Rin paid more attention to his surroundings. Two times he sensed a bad soul and managed to evade contact. He had just collected his sixteenth soul when he heard agonizing screaming close by. He jerked in surprise, looking in the direction it came from. So that part of his original expectations was true after all. He shivered. Whatever the reason for those screams he didn't want to know. He continued his search in the opposite direction.

While wandering the twilight woods he kept hearing these kind of screams from time to time, always coming from different places, sometimes far away sometimes very near. Combined with the dull surroundings it made Purgatory the creepy place Rin had always imagined.

Well, without the fires at least.

Escaping bad souls wasn't easy Rin learned again when he found himself face to face with another one. His first instinct was to bring as much space between him and the soul as possible, so he jumped back.

Or tried to.

The soul was faster than he expected, bringing down its claws in Rin's direction. It hit him in the right shoulder, slicing right through his coat and tearing into his flesh. Suddenly all Rin's mind knew was pain and his vision became blank for a moment. When he opened his eyes again he was lying on the ground, the soul ready to rip him apart.

Right as the soul leashed at him the demon he met earlier appeared before him and hit the soul in the forehead midjump. It turned into a ball of light that rose upward. The demon turned to Rin and crouched down next to him. “You okay?”

Rin nodded and managed to sit up despite the pain still clouding his mind.

“Ouch, that must've hurt,” the demon commented and Rin's brain registered the touch before he had realized the demon had moved. The demon carefully ran a hand alongside the gashes, making Rin shiver from both the pain and the surprisingly gentle touch. It didn't seem to bleed as much as the pain had suggested. Maybe the wound wasn't that bad.

“It isn't that bad,” the demon said and Rin sighed in relief. “Soul energy just hurts like a bitch. Something about the intensity of the human emotions we can't handle. That's why you passed out.” The demon started digging in his jacket pockets and pulled out a piece of cloth that he pressed against the still bleeding scratches.

“Why are you helping me?”

The demon looked up. He opened his mouth, closed it again. Then sighed. “I don't know. Maybe because I pity you. Being thrown in the lion's pit without so much as knowing what a lion even is.”

Those words struck something in Rin though he couldn't place what it was. He kept quiet, not sure what he could possibly reply to this. Instead he brought up his own hand to hold the cloth against the wound.

“You know what,” the demon suddenly said and stood up, “I'm going to show you how to defend yourself down here.”

Rin looked up in surprise and caught himself nodding before he realized what this meant.

He was going to be taught by a demon.

But demons were evil, weren't they? Even though this one had been nothing but kind to him. He really didn't know what to believe anymore.

The demon reached out a hand. “I'm Ryuuji.”

Rin hesitated for a moment before he took it and was pulled upright. “Rin.”

Ryuuji smirked and Rin wondered if it really was a good idea to trust him so easily. But just imagining going up to Samael and asking him, an _arch_ angel and the very one who had practically dumped him into danger, if he could teach Rin self defence had him throwing all doubts overboard.

“Please take care of me.”


End file.
